Long Islander's Blog – October 2016 Archive (8)

“Any large scale development has groups that form to oppose them,” says Juliet Browne, attorney with Verrill Dana LLP. “Wind, in particular, has its own energized set of opponents. As a result, it is increasingly difficult to permit wind projects and other large scale developments.”

Browne has been practicing in the fields of energy and environmental law for more than 20 years and formerly served on the Governor’s Wind Power Task Force in Maine.

My guess is the average person doesn't wake up each day and ask "how can I have more wind power"? However, I would guess there are a number of key legislators in Mass who may. Lots of money to pocket. They plan and plot for years. Nothing quite like free money.

The following, from several years ago, may be very revealing as to how much the everyday citizen in Massachusetts cares:

"Many of the large wind projects rejected in the RFP would have required huge new transmission lines to get their power to market, including Pattern Development’s King Pine and EDP Renewables’ Number Nine developments, both located in northern Maine.

“If I look at the northern part of the country, interconnection capacity and transmission capacity are significant limiting factors for wind,” Gabriel Alonso, chief executive of EDP Renewables North America, said earlier this month at an…

It sounds as though the evaluation team's decisions affecting ratepayers will be made and communicated to the wind developers, but the public will be kept in the dark until the very last minute. This allows the wind developers maximum time to spring their surprise attack while giving everyday Mainers absolute minimum time to react to the news that an out sized wind factory is now targeted for their community. The government does not work for you; it works for…

"Of course, the tourism industry here will always be driven by the coast – that’s what people think of when they think of Maine. But in many ways, that is because the coast is where the investment and attention have gone for decades. Inland Maine doesn’t have the infrastructure and high-end offerings of the coast, nor does it have an identity outside the state."

I'm not sure I agree fully that inland Maine does not have an identity…

As Mainers are kept busy simply trying to keep their heads above water, manipulators in Massachusetts quietly work their plans to grow wildly rich at our expense. The game is truly rigged and none of this happens without unrelenting help from Maine's own wind & transmission cabal consisting of Maine legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, regulators, so called environmental groups and media.

PORTLAND, Maine — The state department that oversees tax collection in Maine has come out against extending a property tax break on the 44-turbine Kibby Mountain wind farm in Franklin County, saying the deal is a giveaway on the backs of residents outside the unorganized territory.…

It seems that the wind developers' criterion for siting a wind project is "wherever the residents let us get away with it, small details like Katahdin and Moosehead be damned".

“This is a collaborative effort with other concerned citizens in the Katahdin region to strengthen and support our community,” said Stanley. “I hope that by hearing from other community leaders in Maine we can work together to improve the overall quality of life in our area and empower…

Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."Vince Lombardi